


The Fire and the Moon

by EvanescentLife



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Book 2: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Chamber of Secrets, F/F, Fire, Moon, first year
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-23
Updated: 2016-08-28
Packaged: 2018-08-08 06:54:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 4,837
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7747537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EvanescentLife/pseuds/EvanescentLife
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Her fire was going out.</p><p>And Luna was only the moon. Light, but no warmth.</p><p>The fire was dying and the moon couldn't help.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Dying Fire

The redhead gryffindor looked forlorn. It was like a deep sadness had taken root in her soul and grown from there, twisting through her veins and out to her toes and fingers. Luna felt like if she looked long enough, she'd be able to see vines creeping out from her eyes or underneath her fingernails.

Her eyes were what Luna noticed most. They looked dark, like some of the life had wilted or flown away or drowned. There were no tears in them, no trace of tears ever having been there, but sadness there was plenty. Sadness, and maybe a little despair. But no hope. None at all.

It was weird seeing this girl who had fire racing through her heart looking so smothered. Luna didn't like it.

She also looked tired. Sad and tired and dark and smothered. This girl was a shell of what she had been. Hollow and ringing with the emptiness of what had been but was no longer.

Luna wondered why nobody else noticed this. Her smiles and laughter were blank, with no emotion. How did no one notice this girl dying from the inside out?

That was when she noticed the fear. There was a spark of fear behind the sadness and tiredness and darkness, behind the hollowness and the smothered fire, behind the blank emotions. A spark of fear that could ignite and any moment and turn into a flame that would burn her to death. Burning from the inside out, cracking and breaking this changed girl. She had been fire, now she would be consumed by it. Luna had read about fiendfyre before. It was difficult to control, large, ate up everything in its path. There was little warning when it started. Luna thought this was a lot like fiendfyre. Inherently vicious and greedy and unstoppable for those who can't handle it. Luna didn't this girl would be able to handle it. Once that fear came through, she would be gone.

The girl glanced over at her, pretty and sad and afraid, and Luna felt a rush of emotions pass through her from this girl. The girl offered her a dead smile, one that some would think was real and full of happiness and friendship. Luna didn't see that. She saw the sadness and the fear and the smothered fire.

Maybe she read too much into it, but Luna thought this girl was in trouble. She didn't know why or how or what to do, but this girl was dying. Not physically, but inside, her will to live withering and her sense of self vanishing, trickling out like water between her fingers. This girl didn't know what to think anymore, Luna thought. She was lost and didn't know where to begin to find herself. She was losing herself. Luna didn't know how to help someone who was losing themselves.

Luna had watched it progressing throughout the year. She had been full of confidence and friendship and smiles and laughter. Her spells were strong, her spirit bright. She was fire taking the school by storm.

Now she was dying, the fire slowly sputtering out. The storm was taking her down. Luna wasn't sure what the storm was. Maybe it was the students getting petrified, maybe it was the schoolwork, maybe it was her friends or family.

Her hair still looked like fire, but the girl herself was not.

The sadness was rain, the darkness a vacuum, the tiredness wind, the fear fiendfyre. All could destroy her.

Her fire was going out.

And Luna was only the moon. Light, but no warmth.

The fire was dying and the moon couldn't help.


	2. Observing Moon

Luna learned who the girl was. Ginny Weasley. All of her brothers had gone here. Four were still here. Luna only had her daddy.

No one thought much of their families. Her daddy was odd. He used the term unconventional. Luna liked that word. They weren't looked up to in anyway, not like the Malfoys or the Potters or the Blacks or the other old wizarding families. They were too unconventional. The Weasleys were too poor, too large. Their family spanned all of Europe. They were everywhere, and everywhere they were poor. Luna's family was also poor, but they were small.

Purebloods, in the weakest of sense.

But Ginny Weasley wasn't like her brothers. Luna had watched as the year went on. The girl had started turning her nose up at muggleborns, ignoring them in the hallways. Her brothers embraced them with open arms. Luna thought that was odd, that all her brothers were accepting of everyone, and yet this girl, who had been so receptive at first, had shut them off. She wasn't vocal about it, it could even be passed off as a coincidence. But Luna didn't think so.

The first attack on the school, Mrs. Norris being petrified, had sent Ginny off in her downward spiral. She had clammed up a bit, a little resistive to her friends, but after a week she was back to normal. A little skittish, but who wouldn't be?

Luna watched as she scorched the earth, her fire spreading to every corner of Hogwarts. She was respected among the other first years. Luna was probably the only one who hadn't known her name. Everyone liked her. She was pretty and smart and brilliant as the sun. She stood up for the bullied, helped the struggling, and befriended the lonely. She never noticed Luna. But what fire would notice the moon?

Luna thought that was for the best. Those who saw her called her Looney. She didn't mind, not really. They meant it cruelly, though. That was what bothered her. She didn't care if they thought her odd or weird and unconventional. She didn't care if they laughed at it and didn't believe her, or refuted her ideas in front of her face. She didn't care if they whispered about her behind her back or called her by something that wasn't her name. But she cared that they meant to hurt. It didn't hurt, not really, but it was the thought that mattered.

It was a cruelty unseen and ignored. But she was the moon, too far away from the ground to stop it.

And then they had another attack. The teachers tried to keep it quiet, not mention his absence, but everyone knew what it meant. Ginny had been getting a little worse before then, a little harried, but she hid it well. Passed it off as the stress of school. But when Colin Creevey disappeared, Ginny had too.

One the girls in their year, Vicky, said she wouldn't leave her room. She was there for two days. Then she was back.

Luna hadn't seen the fear then, but she suspected that was when it started.

She was twitchy in class. Luna thought it was paranoia, worry about being next. The other students were getting worried, too. They started traveling in packs of three or four. She often saw Ginny sneaking off alone. Luna walked alone, too. But she was the moon, what else would she do? Even the stars were too far away.

It was when Justin and Sir Nicholas were petrified that Luna knew something was wrong. That was when the sadness had set in. Ginny had drawn in on herself. She startled easily. Her eyes were always downcast. The confidence was gone, but the smiles were still there. They were small and few, but they were there and they were real.

Her fire swelled up at one point, but it was tinged, tainted. Luna thought there was too much smoke. It hid her true fire. It made it look bigger than it actually was. Ginny was hiding, though from what Luna didn't know.

The gryffindor had been starting to get better. She looked freer. Her eyes were brighter, but her spirit was still shaded.

No one said anything about it. Luna thought maybe she only noticed because she was the moon. Those on the ground couldn't see the whole fire, not like the moon could. They thought it was normal.

Luna never approached her that year. She only watched from a distance. The moon could not touch the earth. She thought the fire might reach her one day, but they were in separate worlds.

They were both light, always changing. One was rapid, consuming what it could with passion but bending to forces of wind and rain. The other was slowly moving through its phases, watching, waiting, not succumbing to what anyone said. But not sharing, either.

They were both light, but they were undeniably different. And Ginny was starting to sputter out again.


	3. Darkening Fire

It was her daddy who first called Luna the moon. She was his moon. She gave him light and guidance as he watched her from the earth. He called her untouched by the false realities of men, unhindered by the thoughts and feelings that dragged others down. He said he had been like that before, uncaring and unknowing of what they thought of him. He told her she should never care what they thought, that caring about that was only a hindrance. He had smiled at her, a crooked smile that made her laugh and kiss his cheek and tell him she would be his moon.  
  
She tried her hardest, but sometimes it was hard. Other times, she barely noticed what they thought.  
  
But Ginny was looking more harried as the days went on. Some of her friends finally started to notice. They confronted her about it, but she brushed them off. They were soon distracted by other things.  
  
Luna continued to notice.  
  
Then Penelope was petrified. McGonogal had called Luna in, knowing they were friends. But they weren't friends, not really, but Luna guessed McGonogal knew Penelope was about the only person who was kind to Luna. Percy Weasley was there, too. He was crying loudly. Luna didn't understand why.  
  
She didn't stay long. She glanced at the other newest victim, a bushy-haired girl. Most likely a muggleborn. She was pretty.  
  
Luna wandered through the rest of the hospital wing. She peaked behind the curtains that shielded the bodies. Justin, Colin, Sir Nicholas, Mrs. Norris. She had really only ever liked Penelope and Sir Nicholas. They were nice to her. She found Justin to be bitter and unforgiving. She had bumped into him once while walking backwards because she had read this inspired good luck if one also carried a piece of ginger and garlic and used many g-words such as garish and ghastly and great. She had tried explaining this to him, but he had scoffed and said "Watch where you're going, Looney," and always glared at her whenever she walked by.  
  
Colin would always take pictures of her doing weird things, yelling out to her in the middle of hallways. She thought he didn't mean to be rude, and was just curious, but she didn't like it. He didn't use Looney cruelly, not really, but he never bothered to ask her name.  
  
Mrs. Norris would always hiss at her.  
  
Before Luna left, McGonogal asked her about a mirror that had been found with the two girls. Luna just shrugged and drifted away.  
  
She saw Ginny in the hallway. The girl looked pale, and she had her arms wrapped around her torso, the corner of a book peaking out from her robes. She dropped her arms when she saw Luna, trying to smile but failing. She looked like she was trembling, her lips barely able to stay quirked in that grimace of a smile.  
  
"What happened?" she asked. Even her voice sounded hollow. This fiery girl was a drowned desert, her fire barely there.  
  
"More victims," Luna answered.  
  
She paled even more if that was possible, face pasty and white. "Who?"  
  
"Penelope Clearwater and a gryffindor girl." She didn't think Ginny knew who Luna was. Maybe she recognized Luna, but she definitely didn't know Luna's reputation, or at least didn't connect it to her.  
  
"Oh."  
  
They were alone in the hallway. Ginny looked like she was about to leave, flit away, be blown off by the slightly breeze.  
  
"Are you alright?" Luna finally asked. She had wanted to ask, ever since she saw the sadness start growing in Ginny, before she knew the girl's name, before she knew it would get to this point, the ghost of the girl before her.  
  
The smile faltered, the shoulders slumped, the breath wheezed out of her like it does in old, dying people. It rattled around in her hollow, empty chest. This girl was eleven, she should not sound like an old dying person. Her lips parted as if to speak, but something stopped her. Luna didn't know what, but her lips closed back up, choking down whatever she had been going to say. "I'm fine," she said instead in that hollow, dead voice. "Just worried, that's all."  
  
"I don't believe you."  
  
Ginny looked like she had been slapped. It was odd, her eyes going wide and blinking, her mouth dropping open the slightest bit, a tinge of pink coming back to her cheeks. "I'm fine," she reiterated, voice hardening, mouth hardening, eyes hardening, resolve hardening. "Have a nice day." She turned sharply, shoulders going back and she pounded down the hall, feet slapping the floor, hands curling into fists before disappearing into robes too large for her. The red strands of her hair hung limp down her back, her body a skeletal frame that seemed like it could barely support her.  
  
Her fire was there, but just barely, only flaming up at certain times. It was tainted, though. There was darkness in that fire, something Luna couldn't put her finger on. It was eating away at the fire of Ginny Weasley. Even her hair didn't hold as much flame as did at the beginning of the year.  
  
The fire was dying, and the moon couldn't do anything to help.


	4. Wandering Moon

They had told the students not to wander the corridors at night. Luna had disregarded that. She had only ever been caught by Mrs. Norris before, and since a cat cannot tattle, Luna only had to avoid Filch. They had been cracking down on it more, though. Safety reasons, they said. Luna didn't care. She liked walking around at night. She had seen Ginny once or twice, but the girl had never seen her so Luna decided to leave her alone. She was the moon, after all, and the moon did not touch the fire.  
  
This night, Luna ran into a group of teachers.  
  
"Ms. Lovegood!" Professor Sprout exclaimed. "You shouldn't be out of bed!"  
  
Luna blinked at them. "I'm sorry, Professor. I couldn't sleep. Walking around at night helps me."   
  
"You must return to your dormitory immediately," Professor McGonogal advised.   
  
Luna didn't understand why, but she didn't ask. The teachers looked worried, even scared.  
  
"Filius, can you see her back?"  
  
The charms teacher nodded and led Luna down the hallway. They weren't going the quickest way, but Luna didn't question it.  
  
"What's happened?" she asked instead.  
  
He didn't give an answer, but she hadn't expected one. She could almost feel how hard he was thinking, it was if she could hear the thoughts buzzing through his head like bees or hummingbirds. She could tell there was fear in his mind, but not for himself. He feared for something else.  
  
"Is everything alright?" she asked.   
  
"We shall see," he told her this time.  
  
They were walking fast. But were they in a hurry to get her back, or for him to go back to conferring with the other professors?  
  
They were stars, she decided. Watching over everyone and leading the way, not really ever changing. They were constants in the sky. Sometimes they would die out,  but others would take their place.   
  
They arrived back in the dormitory, and Professor Flitwick bade her goodnight before whisking away.   
  
Luna didn't sleep. She sat in the common room by the window, watching the sky, her back pressed against the cold stone wall of the window sill. Her thoughts wandered back to what was going on, and eventually to Ginny. Maybe this dying girl had something to do with it. Luna hoped she was alright.  
  
She got up then, and grabbed a couple items from her room before returning to her spot at the window. She laid them out in front of her. She did a couple protective enchantments, and then lit them on fire. They burned together as she muttered another spell, always thinking of Ginny. She needed to keep her fire alive.  
  
This was supposed to protect a person. Luna wasn't sure if it worked, but her mother believed in it. It was a ritual she had taught Luna after her mother's friend had gone missing. Luna wasn't sure if she was skilled enough or if it even worked, but she hoped Ginny was safe.  
  
She knew it had to be Ginny. If it was only another petrification, the teachers wouldn't be so worried. Luna knew it could only be Ginny.  
  
Luna stayed at the window the entire night. When the sun rose, its light scattering across the ground, lighting up the world in a golden glow of summer soon to come, the other ravenclaws started slowly filing into the common room. They couldn't leave, though, not until Professor Flitwick was there to escort them down.  
  
He didn't show up at seven, or eight, or nine. Some students were getting agitated, others worried. Luna just sat by the window, eyes skating over the other ravenclaws, drifting out the window, dropping down to the burned remnants in front of her. Conversations murmured through the room, but something was pressing down on them. Luna could feel it pulling their shoulders down, dragging their feet towards the floor, weighing their words down. It muffled everything, but also made it a thousand times louder.  
  
Professor Flitwick came at ten. Everyone broke out in ruckus, complaining about being late to class, being hungry, waking up early for nothing. Luna didn't say anything. She watched between legs from her spot at the window, examining Flitwick's face. His cheeks were pink, his eyes pinched and tired. He didn't look worried anymore though. He looked relieved.  
  
He beckoned over a seventh year prefect. They conversed in whispers, and soon the common room had quieted. They strained their ears to hear the discussion, leaning forward as if that would help. They were like a flock of birds ready to take flight, eager to know what was going on. Luna only wanted to know if Ginny was safe.  
  
Flitwick left then, and the prefect told them they were all meeting in the Great Hall. Classes were cancelled. Some dropped their heads in despair while others brightened. Luna stood and vanished the ashes. She fell behind everyone, listening to their feet hit the floor, a cacophony of conversation and marching feet. It echoed through the corridors, the slapping and whispers of words that dispersed in the air like smoke, filling up the hall. But it didn't dampen anything, didn't make it harder to breathe. It made it brighter. Something had changed in the castle.  
  
Their noise was dwarfed by those coming from the Great Hall. Voices ricocheted around like spells, each distinct yet unidentifiable amidst the others. An uproar of sound and clinking silverware that filled the room like it hadn't since before the first attack.  
  
The ravenclaws were the last to arrive. They sat down at their table. Luna looked around the room. Harry Potter was noticeably absent, along with Ginny Weasley. Dumbledore was also gone.  
  
McGonogal stood up then, taking Dumbldore's place at the podium. The Great Hall quieted, the sound slowly vanishing, escaping the room like it had been blown away by a breeze. She took a deep breath, the tiredness and relief obvious in her features, her mouth not as stern as it usually was. "Last night," she said, eyes sharp and tired, "the Chamber of Secrets performed its last act. The creature that was terrorizing the corridors was a basilisk."  
  
Murmurs rippled through the hall. McGonogal held up her hand to stop them.  
  
"It is dead now, and the Chamber of Secrets will not be  opened again. It's location shall remain a secret. Not even I know where it is. Several students almost died tonight, but the source of evil was discovered. It had manifested itself in a student; I will not divulge who. All the students have survived, and Professor Sprout is ministering the Mandrake Draught this very moment. Everyone will be alright."  
  
The rest of the speech faded from Luna's ears as she looked around at those in the hall. The teachers all looked tired, but relieved. The redheaded Weasleys looked worried, and kept looking around as if something was missing. The other students looked relieved, the friends of the petrified were smiling in relief, eyes losing their worry and softening.  
  
It was like the darkness that had been pressing in around them was gone. The fire was back, Luna thought, brighter than the moon, brighter than the sun. Ginny was alright, she thought, and Hogwarts would be, too.


	5. Recovering Fire

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know if the order of everyone coming to the Great Hall is canon, but I think this way makes sense.

The victims of the attack arrived towards the end of the feast. Penelope gave Luna a quick hug before going to her friends. Harry Potter had come in some time before them with Ron Weasley, and his brothers looked relieved. That seemed to be a common thing that day, relief. Luna could feel it filling the hall like a deep sigh or a warm summer breeze. It grew, too, into a fine mist that clouded and washed away any of the fear or worry that had been there before.  
  
Ginny came in with the newly revived. They all rushed to their friends and crashed into hugs in between the tables. But Ginny trailed after them, looking shaken up, a little pale and rattled, but she was smiling. Relief. There was happiness there, too, and her fire, crackling beneath her uncertainty and nervousness, sparking through her eyes that now held no fear, flying through her hair and lighting up her spirit once more. Luna was happy to see it. She hadn't recovered completely, not yet, maybe not ever, but she looked better, brighter, fuller. Her confidence was still hiding, and there was something else in her eyes Luna couldn't place, but Ginny was back, and the dying girl was gone. The sadness was still there, but the vines had been cut, and only the roots remained. Luna knew it was hard to get rid of the roots. They would linger, and never really go away.  
  
Her brothers flocked around her. She shooed them off, though, and went to her friends. Her brothers hovered not too far away, always keeping an eye on her.   
  
Luna watched all of this from the end of the table, as the moon was wont to do. She was observing, untouched by the reunions because no one had ever reached out to her for friendship. No one but the ghosts and Penelope, and they were focused on those they related with most, Penelope's friends surrounding her and a silvery huddle of ghosts crowded around Sir Nicholas.  
  
Hagrid came back at one point, Luna wasn't really sure when. She liked him. He was unconventional, like her. And Dumbledore cancelled the exams.  Many of the older students looked upset, but Luna felt they needed it. They had been struggling that year, the tole of the fear and stress had weighed them down, pulling them down like an anchor, and they wouldn't have done well. They would've cracked, she felt, cracked and failed.  
  
Gryffindor won the house cup. Luna thought they needed that, too. They had all suffered because of Harry's parseltongue, and Ginny especially suffered. The slytherins had, too, but not really after Harry Potter had talked to a snake. It was like they had been forgotten. Why would the heir of Slytherin be a slytherin when Harry Potter could talk to snakes?  
  
They feasted the rest of that day. Many retired early, slowly filtering out the Great Hall, drifting off to bed in groups of two or three. Luna stayed until the end, watching everyone. The light had come back into Hogwarts. She found it strange, how the mood of the castle could change so quickly. All it took was knowledge that the terror was gone and relief and a fire, and it was like none of the past year had happened. They giggled and laughed and ate food like it was the first day of school, friendships strong and boisterous and free.  
  
It was all very strange.  
  
They were shooed out that night, Luna trailing after everyone else, following them like the moon must follow the earth. Ginny was there amongst them. Luna didn't know why the girl had stayed that long. But maybe, after dying for so long, she needed the life of those around her.  
  
Then Ginny looked behind her for some reason, saw Luna, and smiled at her. Luna gave a small smile back. She liked this fire of a girl.


	6. Searching Moon

Luna ran into Ginny later that week. It was during dinner time, and Luna had chosen to wander the castle instead of sitting alone at the table while everyone enjoyed their friends. She was also looking for her shoes. She had walked barefoot most of the year, and had come to enjoy the feeling of the cool floor and the grounded nature that came with it. As the moon, she spent a lot of the time in the sky, and this feeling of connectedness she had when her feet touched the floor kept her from floating away. Her daddy called it that when her mind wandered and she flitted around not paying attention to the real world. Luna liked that. She floated. But she also needed her shoes back because her daddy wouldn't like it if she didn't come back with them.  
  
Ginny stopped when she saw her, so Luna did, too. The girl looked timid now, her shoulders curled in and her hands clasped together.  
  
"Why aren't you at dinner?" Ginny asked, her shoulders pushing back as if to hide her insecurities behind her back.  
  
"I'm looking for my shoes," Luna told her. "The nargles took them, I think."  
  
"Oh?"  
  
Luna hummed in response.  
  
They stood like that for a moment, the fire and the moon. One searching for herself, the other searching for her shoes.  
  
"Are you alright?" Luna asked. It was more to fill the silence than anything.  
  
Ginny tucked her hair behind her ear, face turning to the side, one hand coming up to rub her arm. "I don't know."  
  
"That's alright." Luna's eyes wandered around the hallway, taking in the portraits and suits of armor. She didn't come down this way very often. She thought she should go here more.  
  
"Really?" Ginny looked back at her, eyes yearning for an affirmation, Luna thought, hoping that what she felt was okay.  
  
She nodded. "Oh, yes. My daddy told me that. He said it's okay to not know if you're okay, because who really knows? You don't have to understand what you're feeling, you just want to be getting better."  
  
The red-haired girl smiled at that, lips tilting up in a real smile. "I'm Ginny."  
  
"I know." Luna smiled dazedly at this girl. This pretty, fiery, wonderful girl who had gained back a part of herself that she had lost, and Luna was happy for her. Luna had lost before, but never herself, and she was glad to know someone could find themselves again. She knew it would take a while, but this girl was starting to, and Luna had a feeling she would do it.  
  
Ginny opened her mouth, a question on her face, but two of her friends giggled into the corridor. They latched onto Ginny and she smiled at them. They wanted to bring her to the Great Hall, feed her because they didn't want her to be like she was before. The change was obvious to them now, they could see how damaged she had been.  
  
They walked by Luna, one girl sticking her nose up, telling Looney to go mind her own business and stay out of their way.  
  
"That's rude," Ginny scolded. "I was talking to her."  
  
The girl said Looney was weird and probably messed up in the head and that Ginny should avoid her.   
  
Ginny looked horrified, too shocked to respond and let her friends bring her down the corridor and around a corner.  
  
Luna couldn't help smiling. It wasn't just Penelope and the ghosts who had been nice to her on purpose now. Ginny might scorn her next year, but at least Luna had one good memory of her. The fire had reached out to her, scorching her. Maybe that would scar, but maybe it would lead to something new.  
  
Luna found a pair of her shoes in that corridor the next day. She picked them up with a smile and skipped away.


End file.
